Unlike California’s majestic rivers and massive dams and
conveyance systems, groundwater is out of sight and underground,
though no less plentiful. The state’s enormous cache of
underground water is a great natural resource and has contributed
to the state becoming the nation’s top agricultural producer and
leader in high-tech industries.
Groundwater is also increasingly relied upon by growing cities
and thirsty farms, and it plays an important role in the future
sustainability of California’s overall water supply. In an
average year, roughly 40 percent of California’s water supply
comes from groundwater.
A new era of groundwater management began in 2014 with the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act, which requires local
and regional agencies to develop and implement sustainable
groundwater management plans with the state as the backstop.
Drought is a widespread concern in the Western U.S., and water
managers across the region are developing groundwater
management plans to conserve the essential resource.
Groundwater is often pumped to the surface to irrigate crops,
and meters that measure the flow of pumped water have
historically offered the best information on groundwater use.
These meters are rare, however, so DRI scientists set out to
determine whether OpenET, a platform that measures
evapotranspiration using satellite data, could help fill this
information gap. The new study, published August 8th in a
special issue of Agricultural Water Management, compared
groundwater meter data with OpenET estimates for agricultural
fields in Nevada and Oregon. The results demonstrate that
OpenET can be used to accurately estimate the amount of
groundwater used for crop irrigation at the level of individual
fields.
The California State Water Resources Control Board is
considering placing the Kern County Subbasin on probation
because of concerns about its groundwater sustainability plans.
A public hearing about this decision is scheduled for February
20, 2025. If the subbasin is put on probation, those using
groundwater will need to report their usage and might face fees
until the local agencies can properly manage the
water. The State Water Board has criticized the Kern
County Subbasin for its updated groundwater plan not addressing
all concerns, especially those from earlier plans. The revised
2024 plan, submitted in May 2024, aims to improve groundwater
management but still faces scrutiny.
A newly relaunched groundwater agency is looking to form a
diverse, 11-member committee made up of land owners to provide
input on future water decisions for a large chunk of northern
Kings County. The Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability
Agency Board of Directors plans to open a 30-day application
process to establish the committee at its next meeting, Sept.
13 at 1 p.m. The board of directors, which includes Kings
County Supervisors Joe Neves, Richard Valle, Doug Verboon,
Rusty Robinson, Richard Fagundes and Hanford Vice Mayor Mark
Kaires, will each appoint one member from their district, while
the remaining five seats will be voted upon by the full
board.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for
the city of Rancho Palos Verdes Tuesday after the risk of
ongoing landslides recently forced authorities to shut off
power for more than 200 homes in two of the city’s
neighborhoods, with some facing indefinite power outages. In
the declaration, Newsom said land movement under the city that
sits atop the bluffs of the Palos Verdes Peninsula has
accelerated significantly following severe storms in 2023 and
2024 and “is now sliding at an average of 9 to 12 inches per
week.” … The power shutoff not only affects the
day-to-day lives of residents but also poses new safety issues,
as power is needed for telecommunications lines, the sewer
system and the pumps that help slow land movement
by expelling the groundwater that
geologists say causes it.
Groundwater makes up roughly a third of California’s freshwater
supply used for irrigation — a necessary resource to continue
producing three-quarters of the nation’s fruits, nuts, and half
of its vegetables. Yet, a new study finds that with the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act imposing higher
groundwater pumping costs, farmers may switch to crops that use
less water. According to a study led by the University of
Maryland, California can meet SGMA’s groundwater targets, but
doing so will cut fruit and nut production by a quarter and
leave 50% more cropland unused.
A final report released by state Water Resources Control Board
staff Friday maintains its recommendation that the Tule
subbasin be put on probation but gives a pass to two specific
groundwater agencies within the subbasin. The report recommends
that farmers in the Delano-Earlimart Irrigation District and
Kern-Tulare Water District groundwater sustainability agencies
be exempted from having to register their wells at a cost of
$300 per well, file pumping reports and pay a $20-per-acre-foot
pumping fee. Those fees and requirements are recommended for
farmers in the rest of the subbasin, which covers the southern
half of the valley portion of Tulare County.
Every year in Sonoma County, steelhead trout and coho salmon
return to spawn in creeks along the Russian River that are fed
by groundwater. Environmental advocates have long urged the
county to adopt measures that would prevent groundwater pumping
and well drilling from drying up these streams and damaging
vital fish habitat. Now, a Sonoma County Superior Court judge
has sided with environmental groups, ruling that the county
violated state law and failed to meet its obligations to
protect so-called public trust resources when officials adopted
rules for wells under an amended local ordinance. Coho
salmon are listed as an endangered species, while steelhead are
listed as threatened. Both spawn in Russian River tributaries
including Mill, Mark West and Green Valley creeks. The court’s
decision underlines a legal requirement that California
counties ensure that unchecked groundwater pumping isn’t drying
up streams and threatening the survival of species, said Sean
Bothwell, executive director of California Coastkeeper
Alliance.
The Fresno Irrigation District is 47 acres closer to its goal
of building 1,300 acres of recharge basins capable of sinking
200,000 acre feet of water during a wet years. It celebrated
the completion of the 47-acre Kenneson and Sanchez basins on
August 21. … Groundwater recharge has become vital as
overpumped regions scramble to comply with the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), which mandates aquifers be
brought into balance by 2040. Most of the San Joaquin Valley,
including the Fresno region, has been deemed critically
overdrafted by the state Department of Water Resources.
… Russian Riverkeeper and a statewide group called the
California Coastkeeper Alliance teamed up to sue Sonoma County
over the way it approved new well permits. “There was no
oversight whatsoever with groundwater permitting,” said
California Coastkeeper Executive Director Sean Bothwell.
”They were really just handing them out without any
analysis whatsoever, of whether groundwater was impacting
surface flows in Sonoma County.” Last week, Superior Court
Judge Bradford Demeo ruled that Sonoma County had failed to
uphold the Public Trust Doctrine, an implied duty of officials
to protect vital public resources. If the decision stands,
Sonoma and other counties will have to determine the impact of
wells on nearby surface water flows before granting a permit.
“I think it’s a landmark case,” said Bothwell. ”I do
think that it’s eye opening and counties will look at it and,
hopefully, be proactive.”
A bitterly contested commercial solar project in the California
desert was unanimously approved by the Riverside County Board
of Supervisors on Tuesday after what one official described as
a “doozy” of a public hearing in which retirees begged the
board to consider an “environmentally superior” alternative
further from their homes. … [S]easonal and full-time
residents at Lake Tamarisk vigorously contested the company’s
claims and said they remain concerned about heavy construction
dust, impacts on a groundwater aquifer and steep declines in
property values due to lost scenic views. … Intersect
Power’s Senior Director of Environmental and Permitting Camille
Wasinger defended the project vigorously during the hearing and
pushed back against residents’ concerns, saying more aggressive
dust suppression measures would be employed than had been used
at Oberon, an earlier large project they built near area homes,
and that an expert’s study had shown it would use little water
and have no groundwater impact.
A study examining the benefits and drawbacks of building
groundwater recharge basins near rural communities is underway
in Merced, Madera, Tulare and Fresno counties. The two-year
study is a spinoff of an earlier feasibility study focused
solely on Fresno County, and both are spearheaded by the
California Water Institute at Fresno State University.
“Floodplains and groundwater recharge do not know geographic
boundaries,” the institute’s interim director Laura Ramos wrote
in an email. “Sometimes the best recharge area for Madera
County might be in Merced County. So it was important to us to
look at a larger geographical area.”
The majority of bills churning through this legislative session
have to pass both the Assembly and Senate by midnight Saturday,
August 31, or they die. And there are a slew of water bills
racing toward that deadline. While some may make it to Governor
Gavin Newsom’s desk, no one can say if he will sign them, veto
them, or ignore them.
The forces behind the relentless land movement plaguing Rancho
Palos Verdes appear to be more complicated, and possibly more
widespread, than originally thought — forcing the city to once
again rethink how it can limit some of the mounting damage.
Officials confirmed a very deep and active landslide plane —
previously considered dormant — during exploratory drilling
this summer, a discovery that has upended emergency efforts
aimed at stabilizing the Portuguese Bend area. … City
officials last week voted to move ahead with a pilot plan to
drill vertical wells into the deeper landslide, with the aim of
pumping out groundwater — known to be the impetus for the land
movement — while continuing to study the extent and
characteristics of the deeper slip plane.
Calling the state’s review of the Kern subbasin’s newest
groundwater plan “cursory,” a representative of the agencies
that wrote the plan detailed how it will protect drinking
water wells, improve water quality and restore the water table
during a workshop held Monday. This was the first of two public
workshops to discuss Kern’s groundwater plan. The next will be
held Thursday, Aug. 29, at 5:30 p.m. at Hodels in Bakersfield.
It will be in person only with no online access. The
stakes are very high as the subbasin is facing possible
probation by the state Water Resources Control Board at a
hearing set for Feb. 20, 2025.
As Californians pump increasing amounts of water from the
ground, sometimes siphoning flows from the rivers above and
hurting fish, wildlife and other water users, an old state law
is proving to be a new and successful means of reining in
excessive pumping. A Superior Court judge ruled
[last] week that Sonoma County must do more to ensure
responsible groundwater pumping under the state’s Public Trust
Doctrine. The historical doctrine holds that rivers, creeks and
other waterways must be protected for the public. Groundwater
has only recently been considered part of the Public Trust
Doctrine, as the hydrological connection between waterways and
below-ground water supplies has become clear. The new court
decision is likely the first to enforce this.
The Westlands Water District in Fresno County officially
unveiled the first phase of a new groundwater storage system on
Aug. 22, aiming to replenish the nation’s largest irrigation
district. Those behind the project say the 614,000-acre
district has optimal farming soil but is desperate for water
storage. In response, they are implementing the Pasajero
Groundwater Recharge Project in two phases. The first phase
features a system to recharge basins with 30 cubic feet of
water per second, resulting in up to 21,000 acre-feet of water
per year. In the second phase, the district will build 10 dry
wells to recharge an additional 5,000 acre-feet of water.
An appellate court decision earlier this month sided with
environmental groups who have long said Fresno’s review process
doesn’t adequately address construction impacts on
neighborhoods. Now, the city has issued at least one memo to
builders using the city’s Program Environmental Impact Report
to stop and do their own review. The decision could delay
“dozens” of industrial, commercial, and residential projects,
according to a City Hall source who requested anonymity. …
California’s Fifth Appellate District delivered its opinion on
Aug. 6, saying the city’s report did not account for realistic,
up-to-date levels of air pollution,
groundwater, and pedestrian traffic. The court
also said that the city didn’t provide needed alternatives to
mitigate those impacts.
Public records show a hedge fund that, according to its
website, is “a global investor in companies and assets that
ensure water quality and supply” paid $100 million for land in
La Paz County in July. AZPM found records for purchases
totaling 12,753.81 acres. The land was previously owned by a
company out of North Carolina, which bought at least some of it
from the City of Phoenix. The land encompasses a large portion
of the unincorporated community of Wenden and sits in the
McMullen Valley. Officials in La Paz County told AZPM they fear
that such deals could result in groundwater
being pumped and sent to other communities. The aquifer under
the land is designated as a transfer basin, meaning water can
be pumped from there and sent to other places in the state.
Westlands Water District has removed 452 acres of almond
orchards thanks to a $1 million grant from the state Department
of Water Resources (DWR.) It’s one project in an ongoing list
aimed at bringing the district’s groundwater into
sustainability. “The district has been acquiring land
since 2022 with the goal of reducing groundwater pumping in the
subsidence prone area,” said Katarina Campbell, supervisor of
resources for Westlands. The trees have been removed but
still need to be chipped and hauled. Then the land will be
available for conversion into a recharge basin, which is the
end goal, said Campbell.
Attorneys for the Friant Water Authority and Eastern Tule
Groundwater Sustainability Agency agreed to mediation on Friday
in an attempt to resolve a dispute over how quickly payment for
repairs to the sinking Friant-Kern Canal should be handed over.
During a status conference in Visalia, both parties told Tulare
County Superior Court Judge Bret Hillman via Zoom that they
will work with Gail Andler, a mediator with JAMS, Judicial
Arbitration and Mediation Services, Inc., to find common ground
in a breach of contract lawsuit filed in February against
Eastern Tule by Friant Water Authority and Arvin-Edison Water
Storage District. When the mediation will occur is a
sticking point, though. Gina Nicholls, who represents Eastern
Tule, said the GSA prefers mediation as soon as possible.
A one million dollar grant promises to help with groundwater
recharge and flood diversion in the Merced County, the
Westlands Water District says. The grant was awarded to the
district by the California Department of Water Resources as
part of the Flood Diversion Recharge (FDRE) Initiative.
… According to the water district, the grant will be
used to support the removal of 450 acres of orchards near the
San Luis Canal in Merced County. The removal of the trees will
reduce demand for groundwater near critical infrastructure and
will improve the availability of both surface and groundwater.
The Department of the Interior today announced the availability
of $775 million for 21 states to clean up legacy pollution
through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. These
historic resources to clean up orphaned oil and gas wells and
well sites – of which over $1 billion has already been
distributed – are creating good-paying jobs, catalyzing
economic growth, eliminating harmful methane leaks, and
reducing environmental and public health risks to surface water
and groundwater resources critical to U.S. communities and
ecosystems.
When the state Sustainable Groundwater Management Act was
signed into law in 2014, Monterey County already had a leg up,
at least from a data perspective: Since 1995, the Monterey
County Water Resources Agency has been tracking groundwater
extraction amounts and groundwater levels throughout most the
Salinas Valley (called the GEMS program), giving those working
to create state-mandated groundwater sustainability plans
locally information to base their plans on. But as the Salinas
Valley Basin Groundwater Sustainability Agency has been
creating its plans throughout the Salinas Valley sub-basins,
it’s run up against a problem: Some areas the state wants data
on are outside the area of MCWRA’s GEMS program, so SVBGSA was
stuck in a pickle – the data simply did not exist.
Farmers and water managers in the Kaweah subbasin are charging
headlong into recharge as a key strategy to both keep the
state’s hands off its pumping and position growers to better
withstand drought years. Fifteen recharge projects have been
completed, are in progress or are in the design phase in the
East Kaweah Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA) alone. And
some farmers have begun building sinking ponds on their own
land as well. The goal is to catch as much wet-year water as
possible to stock up for dry years that are only as far away as
the next water year.
On Monday, July 29, 2024, the Mid-Kings River GSA held a
special board meeting to wrap up the GSA’s official business
before the Kings County Water District’s last day as a member
agency. At the same time, the County of Kings and City of
Hanford held a joint special meeting, at which they approved a
restated joint powers agreement (JPA), ensuring that the
Mid-Kings River GSA will continue to function without the Kings
County Water District’s involvement and appointed new directors
to serve on the board. KCFB appreciates both agencies working
together and safeguarding the Tulare Lake Sub-basin (TLSB) from
having an unmanaged zone under the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA). However, KCFB has concerns about the
adopted JPA.
A California water solutions company, announced [Thursday] the
release of a new video focused on the hydrogeology of the
watershed surrounding the Company’s Cadiz Ranch in California’s
eastern Mojave Desert. The Cadiz Aerial Tour video utilizes new
photography, underground imagery and aerial footage to bring to
life the vast and unique aquifer system flowing beneath Cadiz
Ranch. With as much as 30-50 million acre-feet of water in
storage today, the 2,000 square mile aquifer system at Cadiz
contains more water than Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in
the United States. The water flowing through the aquifer has
supported sustainable agriculture operations at Cadiz Ranch for
four decades.
A dangerous herbicide banned immediately by the US
Environmental Protection Agency has been sprayed on crops in
many California counties and has contaminated groundwater in
low concentrations in the Salinas Valley and Santa Barbara
County. The weed-killing chemical, known as DCPA or
Dacthal, can harm the developing brains of babies in the womb,
and can remain in farm fields for weeks, EPA officials said.
The greatest threat is to pregnant farmworkers and those who
live near fields. The chemical, which has been in use in
the United States for almost 70 years, was so dangerous that
“it needs to be removed from the market immediately,” EPA
announced Tuesday. The agency issued a rare emergency order
suspending all use immediately — a first for the EPA in almost
40 years.
… Out of 18 approved hydrogen production projects that will
require significant freshwater, four are in areas of high or
extremely high water stress … according to the World
Resources Institute’s Water Risk Atlas. … The question
is where that green hydrogen production will be consuming
water. Four of the private green hydrogen projects as well as
the ARCHES hydrogen hub, which has been awarded up to $1.2
billion by the DOE, are located in the southwestern United
States. This region has the most sunshine for cheap solar
energy to power the electrolysis, and it’s also near
California, where limits on emissions from transportation fuels
have spurred interest in hydrogen for trucking. But parts
of the Southwest remain in the worst megadrought in
1,200 years despite a bout of rainfall this winter; the Great
Basin has lost trillions of gallons of groundwater,
and the vital Colorado River is drying up.
Despite back-to-back good water years, domestic wells are still
drying up all across the valley as record breaking heat waves
pummel the region. The state saw slightly above average
runoff for the 2023-2024 water year with significant
precipitation and major reservoirs largely above average
levels. That’s on top of an epic 2022-2023 water year. The
effect was that groundwater levels rebounded in many areas.
Then this summer’s brutal heat set in, drying up at-risk wells
across the valley. The nonprofit group Self-Help
Enterprises has seen the influx firsthand. Before June,
staff were getting about five dry well calls a month. As
temperatures escalated in June, calls skyrocketed to 15 a week.
In the past three months, Self-Help has set up water tanks for
about 55 households.
In drought-prone California, pioneering water-saving
initiatives have become indispensable to a sustainable future.
Yet although water use has plateaued in some regions — even as
the population has grown — a warming climate means all cities
will need to conserve more. As a result, the state passed new
water standards, Making Conservation a California Way of Life,
which become effective Jan. 1, 2025. This new rule shifts away
from a one-size-fits-all approach to community-specific
conservation management. Historically, state-enacted emergency
orders required all urban water suppliers to reduce their water
use — no matter their water supply source or water use
conditions. It’s much more difficult (and expensive) to squeeze
25% savings out of an already efficient community than it is to
get those same savings from a community that has never invested
in conservation. To better level the playing field and bring
all communities to a baseline of efficiency, urban water
suppliers now have a unique water budget they must achieve. —Written by Tia Fleming, co-executive director of
the California Water Efficiency Partnership
After several rounds of musical chairs in front of a
standing-room only audience, a groundwater agency that had been
blamed for putting Kings County into probationary status with
the state was reconstituted and launched anew Monday night.
“Tonight’s the night we come together,” said Kings County
Supervisor Doug Verboon, who, along with his fellow supervisors
and the vice mayor of Hanford make up the new six-member board
of the Mid-Kings River Groundwater Sustainability Agency (GSA).
… Without a new plan to consider, the Water Board placed
the region on probation, which means water managers have a year
to write a new plan. Meanwhile, growers were supposed to meter
and register wells at $300 each and pay $20-per-acre-foot
pumped. Those requirements have been delayed pending
the outcome of a lawsuit against the state by the Kings County
Farm Bureau.
Farmers consume nearly 7% of California’s electricity. The vast
majority of this electricity is used to power groundwater
pumps, which farmers rely on for irrigating thirsty, high-value
crops such as grapes, almonds, and pistachios. Groundwater is
especially important during drought years, when farmers need to
make up for surface water shortages by pulling water out of the
Central Valley’s underground aquifers. In a new Energy
Institute working paper, Energy Institute alums Fiona Burlig,
Louis Preonas, and Matt Woerman measure the extent to which
higher electricity prices cause farmers to reduce their
groundwater use.
California should take urgent and bold measures to adapt its
$59 billion agriculture sector to climate change as the amount
of water available for crops declines, according to a
collaborative report by University of California faculty from
four campuses. Published in the Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, the report provides a roadmap
for more water capture, storage, and distribution systems that
are in harmony with climate projections and ecosystems. It
further considers how runoff and groundwater can be used
repeatedly as it flows generally from mountainsides to coastal
lands.
Seeking to prevent the California State Water Resources Control
Board from stepping in to regulate groundwater in critically
overdrafted subbasins, local agencies are working to correct
deficiencies in their plans to protect groundwater. With
groundwater sustainability agencies formed and groundwater
sustainability plans evaluated, the state water board has moved
to implement the 2014 Sustainable Groundwater Management Act,
or SGMA. … Under probation, groundwater extractors in
the Tulare Lake subbasin face annual fees of $300 per well and
$20 per acre-foot pumped, plus a late reporting fee of 25%.
SGMA also requires well owners to file annual groundwater
extraction reports.
Last week, Assemblywoman Esmeralda Soria introduced AB 2060 to
help divert local floodwater into regional groundwater
basins. AB 2060 seeks to streamline the permitting process
to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife in support of
Flood-MAR activities when a stream or river has reached
flood-monitor or flood stage as determined by the California
Nevada River Forecast Center or the State Water Resources
Control Board (SWRCB). This expedited approval process would be
temporary during storm events with qualifying flows under the
SWRCB permit.
How will selling groundwater help keep more groundwater in the
San Joaquin Valley’s already critically overtapped aquifers?
Water managers in the Kaweah subbasin in northwestern Tulare
County hope to find out by having farmers tinker with a pilot
groundwater market program. Kaweah farmers will be joining
growers from subbasins up and down the San Joaquin Valley
who’ve been looking at how water markets might help them
maintain their businesses by using pumping allotments and
groundwater credits as assets to trade or sell when water is
tight.
Explore the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
The 3ʳᵈ International Conference, Toward Sustainable Groundwater in Agriculture: Linking Science & Policy took place from June 18 – 20. Organized by the Water Education Foundation and the UC Davis Robert M. Hagan Endowed Chair, the conference provided scientists, policymakers, agricultural and environmental interest group representatives, government officials and consultants with the latest scientific, management, legal and policy advances for sustaining our groundwater resources in agricultural regions around the world.
The conference keynote address was provided by Mark Arax, an award-winning journalist and author of books chronicling agriculture and water issues in California’s Central Valley. Arax comes from a family of Central Valley farmers and is praised for writing books that are deeply profound, heartfelt and nuanced including The Dreamt Land, West of the West and The King of California. He did a reading from his latest book The Dreamt Land and commented on the future of groundwater in the Valley during his keynote lunch talk on June 18.
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport
1333 Bayshore Hwy
Burlingame, CA 94010
A new but little-known change in
California law designating aquifers as “natural infrastructure”
promises to unleash a flood of public funding for projects that
increase the state’s supply of groundwater.
The change is buried in a sweeping state budget-related law,
enacted in July, that also makes it easier for property owners
and water managers to divert floodwater for storage underground.
A new underground mapping technology
that reveals the best spots for storing surplus water in
California’s Central Valley is providing a big boost to the
state’s most groundwater-dependent communities.
The maps provided by the California Department of Water Resources
for the first time pinpoint paleo valleys and similar prime
underground storage zones traditionally found with some guesswork
by drilling exploratory wells and other more time-consuming
manual methods. The new maps are drawn from data on the
composition of underlying rock and soil gathered by low-flying
helicopters towing giant magnets.
The unique peeks below ground are saving water agencies’
resources and allowing them to accurately devise ways to capture
water from extreme storms and soak or inject the surplus
underground for use during the next drought.
“Understanding where you’re putting and taking water from really
helps, versus trying to make multimillion-dollar decisions based
on a thumb and which way the wind is blowing,” said Aaron Fukuda,
general manager of the Tulare Irrigation District, an early
adopter of the airborne electromagnetic or
AEM technology in California.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hilton Garden Inn Las Vegas Strip South
7830 S Las Vegas Blvd
Las Vegas, NV 89123
It was exactly the sort of deluge
California groundwater agencies have been counting on to
replenish their overworked aquifers.
The start of 2023 brought a parade of torrential Pacific storms
to bone dry California. Snow piled up across the Sierra Nevada at
a near-record pace while runoff from the foothills gushed into
the Central Valley, swelling rivers over their banks and filling
seasonal creeks for the first time in half a decade.
Suddenly, water managers and farmers toiling in one of the
state’s most groundwater-depleted regions had an opportunity to
capture stormwater and bank it underground. Enterprising agencies
diverted water from rushing rivers and creeks into manmade
recharge basins or intentionally flooded orchards and farmland.
Others snagged temporary permits from the state to pull from
streams they ordinarily couldn’t touch.
This special Foundation water tour journeyed along the Eastern Sierra from the Truckee River to Mono Lake, through the Owens Valley and into the Mojave Desert to explore a major source of water for Southern California, this year’s snowpack and challenges for towns, farms and the environment.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
A pilot program in the Salinas Valley run remotely out of Los Angeles is offering a test case for how California could provide clean drinking water for isolated rural communities plagued by contaminated groundwater that lack the financial means or expertise to connect to a larger water system.
Managers of California’s most
overdrawn aquifers were given a monumental task under the state’s
landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act: Craft viable,
detailed plans on a 20-year timeline to bring their beleaguered
basins into balance. It was a task that required more than 250
newly formed local groundwater agencies – many of them in the
drought-stressed San Joaquin Valley – to set up shop, gather
data, hear from the public and collaborate with neighbors on
multiple complex plans, often covering just portions of a
groundwater basin.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape while learning about the issues
associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
Water Education Foundation
2151 River Plaza Drive, Suite 205
Sacramento, CA 95833
This tour traveled along the San Joaquin River to learn firsthand
about one of the nation’s largest and most expensive river
restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Hampton Inn & Suites Fresno
327 E Fir Ave
Fresno, CA 93720
An online
short course starting Thursday will provide
registrants the opportunity to learn more about how groundwater
is monitored, assessed and sustainably managed.
The class, offered by University of California, Davis and
several other organizations in cooperation with the Water
Education Foundation, will be held May 12, 19,
26 and June 2, 16 from 9 a.m. to noon.
Martha Guzman recalls those awful
days working on water and other issues as a deputy legislative
secretary for then-Gov. Jerry Brown. California was mired in a
recession and the state’s finances were deep in the red. Parks
were cut, schools were cut, programs were cut to try to balance a
troubled state budget in what she remembers as “that terrible
time.”
She now finds herself in a strikingly different position: As
administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s
Region 9, she has a mandate to address water challenges across
California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii and $1 billion to help pay
for it. It is the kind of funding, she said, that is usually
spread out over a decade. Guzman called it the “absolutely
greatest opportunity.”
This tour explored the lower Colorado River firsthand where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to some 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour ventured through California’s Central Valley, known as the nation’s breadbasket thanks to an imported supply of surface water and local groundwater. Covering about 20,000 square miles through the heart of the state, the valley provides 25 percent of the nation’s food, including 40 percent of all fruits, nuts and vegetables consumed throughout the country.
The lower Colorado River has virtually every drop allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states, 30 tribal nations and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Hyatt Place Las Vegas At Silverton Village
8380 Dean Martin Drive
Las Vegas, NV 89139
This tour guided participants on a virtual exploration of the Sacramento River and its tributaries and learn about the issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project.
As California’s seasons become
warmer and drier, state officials are pondering whether the water
rights permitting system needs revising to better reflect the
reality of climate change’s effect on the timing and volume of
the state’s water supply.
A report by the State Water Resources Control Board recommends
that new water rights permits be tailored to California’s
increasingly volatile hydrology and be adaptable enough to ensure
water exists to meet an applicant’s demand. And it warns
that the increasingly whiplash nature of California’s changing
climate could require existing rights holders to curtail
diversions more often and in more watersheds — or open
opportunities to grab more water in climate-induced floods.
The San Joaquin Valley has a big
hill to climb in reaching groundwater sustainability. Driven by
the need to keep using water to irrigate the nation’s breadbasket
while complying with California’s Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act, people throughout the valley are looking for
innovative and cost-effective ways to manage and use groundwater
more wisely. Here are three examples.
Groundwater provides about 40
percent of the water in California for urban, rural and
agricultural needs in typical years, and as much as 60 percent in
dry years when surface water supplies are low. But in many areas
of the state, groundwater is being extracted faster than it can
be replenished through natural or artificial means.
Across a sprawling corner of southern Tulare County snug against the Sierra Nevada, a bounty of navel oranges, grapes, pistachios, hay and other crops sprout from the loam and clay of the San Joaquin Valley. Groundwater helps keep these orchards, vineyards and fields vibrant and supports a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy across the valley. But that bounty has come at a price. Overpumping of groundwater has depleted aquifers, dried up household wells and degraded ecosystems.
Since 1997, more than 430 engineers,
farmers, environmentalists, lawyers, and others have graduated
from our William R. Gianelli Water Leaders program. We’ve
developed a new alumni network
webpage to help program participants connect and keep in
touch.
An
online short course starting Thursday will provide
registrants the opportunity to learn more about how groundwater
is monitored, assessed and sustainably managed.
The class, offered by UC Davis and several other organizations in
cooperation with the Water Education Foundation, will be
held May 21 and 28, June 4, 18, and 25 from 9 a.m. to noon.
The bill is coming due, literally,
to protect and restore groundwater in California.
Local agencies in the most depleted groundwater basins in
California spent months putting together plans to show how they
will achieve balance in about 20 years.
This event explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs was the focus of this tour.
Innovative efforts to accelerate
restoration of headwater forests and to improve a river for the
benefit of both farmers and fish. Hard-earned lessons for water
agencies from a string of devastating California wildfires.
Efforts to drought-proof a chronically water-short region of
California. And a broad debate surrounding how best to address
persistent challenges facing the Colorado River.
These were among the issues Western Water explored in
2019, and are still worth taking a look at in case you missed
them.
A diverse roster of top
policymakers and water experts are on the
agenda for the Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit. The conference, Water Year 2020: A Year
of Reckoning, will feature compelling conversations
reflecting on upcoming regulatory deadlines and efforts to
improve water management and policy in the face of natural
disasters.
Tickets for the Water Summit are sold out, but by joining the waitlist we can
let you know when spaces open via cancellations.
To survive the next drought and meet
the looming demands of the state’s groundwater sustainability
law, California is going to have to put more water back in the
ground. But as other Western states have found, recharging
overpumped aquifers is no easy task.
Successfully recharging aquifers could bring multiple benefits
for farms and wildlife and help restore the vital interconnection
between groundwater and rivers or streams. As local areas around
California draft their groundwater sustainability plans, though,
landowners in the hardest hit regions of the state know they will
have to reduce pumping to address the chronic overdraft in which
millions of acre-feet more are withdrawn than are naturally
recharged.
California experienced one of the
most deadly and destructive wildfire years on record in 2018,
with several major fires occurring in the wildland-urban
interface (WUI). These areas, where communities are in close
proximity to undeveloped land at high risk of wildfire, have felt
devastating effects of these disasters, including direct impacts
to water infrastructure and supplies.
One panel at our 2019 Water
Summit Oct. 30 in Sacramento will feature speakers
from water agencies who came face-to-face with two major fires:
The Camp Fire that destroyed most of the town of Paradise in
Northern California, and the Woolsey Fire in the Southern
California coastal mountains. They’ll talk about their
experiences and what lessons they learned.
The southern part of California’s Central Coast from San Luis Obispo County to Ventura County, home to about 1.5 million people, is blessed with a pleasing Mediterranean climate and a picturesque terrain. Yet while its unique geography abounds in beauty, the area perpetually struggles with drought.
Indeed, while the rest of California breathed a sigh of relief with the return of wet weather after the severe drought of 2012–2016, places such as Santa Barbara still grappled with dry conditions.
Atmospheric rivers, the narrow bands
of moisture that ferry precipitation across the Pacific Ocean to
the West Coast, are necessary to keep California’s water
reservoirs full.
However, some of them are dangerous because the extreme rainfall
and wind can cause catastrophic flooding and damage, much
like what happened in 2017 with Oroville Dam’s spillway.
Learn the latest about atmospheric river research and forecasting
at our 2019 Water
Summit on Oct. 30 in Sacramento, where
prominent research meteorologist Marty Ralph will give the
opening keynote.
With a key deadline for the
Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in January, one of the
featured panels at our Oct.
30thWater
Summit will focus on how regions around California
are crafting groundwater sustainability plans and working on
innovative ways to fill aquifers.
The theme for this year’s Water Summit, “Water Year 2020: A Year
of Reckoning,” reflects critical upcoming events in California
water, including the imminent Jan. 31, 2020 deadline for
groundwater sustainability plans (GSPs) in high- and
medium-priority basins.
Our event calendar is an excellent
resource for keeping up with water events in California and the
West.
Groundwater is top of mind for many water managers as they
prepare to meet next January’s deadline for submitting
sustainability plans required under California’s Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act. We have several upcoming featured
events listed on our calendar that focus on a variety of relevant
groundwater topics:
Registration opens today for the
Water Education Foundation’s 36th annual Water
Summit, set for Oct. 30 in Sacramento. This year’s
theme, Water Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,
reflects fast-approaching deadlines for the State Groundwater
Management Act as well as the pressing need for new approaches to
water management as California and the West weather intensified
flooding, fire and drought. To register for this can’t-miss
event, visit our Water Summit
event page.
Registration includes a full day of discussions by leading
stakeholders and policymakers on key issues, as well as coffee,
materials, gourmet lunch and an outdoor reception by the
Sacramento River that will offer the opportunity to network with
speakers and other attendees. The summit also features a silent
auction to benefit our Water Leaders program featuring
items up for bid such as kayaking trips, hotel stays and lunches
with key people in the water world.
Summer is a good time to take a
break, relax and enjoy some of the great beaches, waterways and
watersheds around California and the West. We hope you’re getting
a chance to do plenty of that this July.
But in the weekly sprint through work, it’s easy to miss
some interesting nuggets you might want to read. So while we’re
taking a publishing break to work on other water articles planned
for later this year, we want to help you catch up on
Western Water stories from the first half of this year
that you might have missed.
Our 36th annual
Water Summit,
happening Oct. 30 in Sacramento, will feature the theme “Water
Year 2020: A Year of Reckoning,” reflecting upcoming regulatory
deadlines and efforts to improve water management and policy in
the face of natural disasters.
The Summit will feature top policymakers and leading stakeholders
providing the latest information and a variety of viewpoints on
issues affecting water across California and the West.
One of California Gov. Gavin
Newsom’s first actions after taking office was to appoint Wade
Crowfoot as Natural Resources Agency secretary. Then, within
weeks, the governor laid out an ambitious water agenda that
Crowfoot, 45, is now charged with executing.
That agenda includes the governor’s desire for a “fresh approach”
on water, scaling back the conveyance plan in the Sacramento-San
Joaquin Delta and calling for more water recycling, expanded
floodplains in the Central Valley and more groundwater recharge.
Groundwater helped make Kern County
the king of California agricultural production, with a $7 billion
annual array of crops that help feed the nation. That success has
come at a price, however. Decades of unchecked groundwater
pumping in the county and elsewhere across the state have left
some aquifers severely depleted. Now, the county’s water managers
have less than a year left to devise a plan that manages and
protects groundwater for the long term, yet ensures that Kern
County’s economy can continue to thrive, even with less water.
This tour explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial needs is the focus of this tour.
Silverton Hotel
3333 Blue Diamond Road
Las Vegas, NV 89139
Although Santa Monica may be the most aggressive Southern California water provider to wean itself from imported supplies, it is hardly the only one looking to remake its water portfolio.
In Los Angeles, a city of about 4 million people, efforts are underway to dramatically slash purchases of imported water while boosting the amount from recycling, stormwater capture, groundwater cleanup and conservation. Mayor Eric Garcetti in 2014 announced a plan to reduce the city’s purchase of imported water from Metropolitan Water District by one-half by 2025 and to provide one-half of the city’s supply from local sources by 2035. (The city considers its Eastern Sierra supplies as imported water.)
Imported water from the Sierra
Nevada and the Colorado River built Southern California. Yet as
drought, climate change and environmental concerns render those
supplies increasingly at risk, the Southland’s cities have ramped
up their efforts to rely more on local sources and less on
imported water.
Far and away the most ambitious goal has been set by the city of
Santa Monica, which in 2014 embarked on a course to be virtually
water independent through local sources by 2023. In the 1990s,
Santa Monica was completely dependent on imported water. Now, it
derives more than 70 percent of its water locally.
The whims of political fate decided
in 2018 that state bond money would not be forthcoming to help
repair the subsidence-damaged parts of Friant-Kern Canal, the
152-mile conduit that conveys water from the San Joaquin River to
farms that fuel a multibillion-dollar agricultural economy along
the east side of the fertile San Joaquin Valley.
The growing leadership of women in water. The Colorado River’s persistent drought and efforts to sign off on a plan to avert worse shortfalls of water from the river. And in California’s Central Valley, promising solutions to vexing water resource challenges.
These were among the topics that Western Water news explored in 2018.
We’re already planning a full slate of stories for 2019. You can sign up here to be alerted when new stories are published. In the meantime, take a look at what we dove into in 2018:
This 2-day, 1-night tour offered participants the opportunity to
learn about water issues affecting California’s scenic Central
Coast and efforts to solve some of the challenges of a region
struggling to be sustainable with limited local supplies that
have potential applications statewide.
In the universe of California water, Tim Quinn is a professor emeritus. Quinn has seen — and been a key player in — a lot of major California water issues since he began his water career 40 years ago as a young economist with the Rand Corporation, then later as deputy general manager with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, and finally as executive director of the Association of California Water Agencies. In December, the 66-year-old will retire from ACWA.
In 1983, a landmark California Supreme Court ruling extended the public trust doctrine to tributary creeks that feed Mono Lake, which is a navigable water body even though the creeks themselves were not. The ruling marked a dramatic shift in water law and forced Los Angeles to cut back its take of water from those creeks in the Eastern Sierra to preserve the lake.
Now, a state appellate court has for the first time extended that same public trust doctrine to groundwater that feeds a navigable river, in this case the Scott River flowing through a picturesque valley of farms and alfalfa in Siskiyou County in the northern reaches of California.
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of Oroville Dam spillway
repairs.
There’s going to be a new governor
in California next year – and a host of challenges both old and
new involving the state’s most vital natural resource, water.
So what should be the next governor’s water priorities?
That was one of the questions put to more than 150 participants
during a wrap-up session at the end of the Water Education
Foundation’s Sept. 20 Water Summit in Sacramento.
More than a decade in the making, an
ambitious plan to deal with the vexing problem of salt and
nitrates in the soils that seep into key groundwater basins of
the Central Valley is moving toward implementation. But its
authors are not who you might expect.
An unusual collaboration of agricultural interests, cities, water
agencies and environmental justice advocates collaborated for
years to find common ground to address a set of problems that
have rendered family wells undrinkable and some soil virtually
unusable for farming.
As California embarks on its unprecedented mission to harness groundwater pumping, the Arizona desert may provide one guide that local managers can look to as they seek to arrest years of overdraft.
Groundwater is stressed by a demand that often outpaces natural and artificial recharge. In California, awareness of groundwater’s importance resulted in the landmark Sustainable Groundwater Management Act in 2014 that aims to have the most severely depleted basins in a state of balance in about 20 years.
Spurred by drought and a major
policy shift, groundwater management has assumed an unprecedented
mantle of importance in California. Local agencies in the
hardest-hit areas of groundwater depletion are drawing plans to
halt overdraft and bring stressed aquifers to the road of
recovery.
Along the way, an army of experts has been enlisted to help
characterize the extent of the problem and how the Sustainable
Groundwater Management Act of 2014 is implemented in a manner
that reflects its original intent.
We explored the lower Colorado River where virtually every drop
of the river is allocated, yet demand is growing from myriad
sources — increasing population, declining habitat, drought and
climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs was the focus of this tour.
Hampton Inn Tropicana
4975 Dean Martin Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89118
California voters may experience a sense of déjà vu this year when they are asked twice in the same year to consider water bonds — one in June, the other headed to the November ballot.
Both tackle a variety of water issues, from helping disadvantaged communities get clean drinking water to making flood management improvements. But they avoid more controversial proposals, such as new surface storage, and they propose to do some very different things to appeal to different constituencies.
This three-day, two-night tour explored the lower Colorado River
where virtually every drop of the river is allocated, yet demand
is growing from myriad sources — increasing population,
declining habitat, drought and climate change.
The 1,450-mile river is a lifeline to 40 million people in
the Southwest across seven states and Mexico. How the Lower Basin
states – Arizona, California and Nevada – use and manage this
water to meet agricultural, urban, environmental and industrial
needs is the focus of this tour.
Best Western McCarran Inn
4970 Paradise Road
Las Vegas, NV 89119
This tour explored the Sacramento River and its tributaries
through a scenic landscape as participants learned about the
issues associated with a key source for the state’s water supply.
All together, the river and its tributaries supply 35 percent of
California’s water and feed into two major projects: the State
Water Project and the federal Central Valley Project. Tour
participants got an on-site update of repair efforts on the
Oroville Dam spillway.
Participants of this tour snaked along the San Joaquin River to
learn firsthand about one of the nation’s largest and most
expensive river restoration projects.
The San Joaquin River was the focus of one of the most
contentious legal battles in California water history,
ending in a 2006 settlement between the federal government,
Friant Water Users Authority and a coalition of environmental
groups.
Groundwater replenishment happens
through direct recharge and in-lieu recharge. Water used for
direct recharge most often comes from flood flows, water
conservation, recycled water, desalination and water
transfers.
One of the wettest years in California history that ended a
record five-year drought has rejuvenated the call for new storage
to be built above and below ground.
In a state that depends on large surface water reservoirs to help
store water before moving it hundreds of miles to where it is
used, a wet year after a long drought has some people yearning
for a place to sock away some of those flood flows for when they
are needed.
Sinkholes are caused by erosion of
rocks beneath soil’s surface. Groundwater dissolves soft
rocks such as gypsum, salt and limestone, leaving gaps in the
originally solid structure. This is exacerbated when water is
acidic from contact with carbon dioxide or acid rain. Even
humidity can play a major role in destabilizing water
underground.
Irrigation is the artificial supply
of water to grow crops or plants. Obtained from either surface or groundwater, it optimizes
agricultural production when the amount of rain and where it
falls is insufficient. Different irrigation
systems are not necessarily mutually exclusive, but in
practical use are often combined. Much of the agriculture in
California and the West relies on irrigation.
The United States
Geographical Survey (USGS) defines freshwater as containing
less than 1,000 milligrams per liter dissolved solids. However,
500 milligrams per liter is usually the cutoff for municipal and
commercial use. Most of the Earth’s water is saline, 97.5
percent with only 2.5 percent fresh.
Springs are where groundwater becomes surface water, acting as openings
where subsurface water can discharge onto the ground or directly
into other water bodies. They can also be considered the
consequence of an overflowing
aquifer. As a result, springs often serve as headwaters to streams.
Potable water, also known as
drinking water, comes from surface and ground sources and is
treated to levels that that meet state and federal standards for
consumption.
Water from natural sources is treated for microorganisms,
bacteria, toxic chemicals, viruses and fecal matter. Drinking
raw, untreated water can cause gastrointestinal problems such as
diarrhea, vomiting or fever.
Extensometers are among the most valuable devices hydrogeologists
use to measure subsidence, but most people – even water
professionals – have never seen one. They are sensitive and
carefully calibrated, so they are kept under lock and key and are
often in remote locations on private property.
During our California
Groundwater Tour Oct. 5-6, you will see two types of
extensometers used by the California Department of Water
Resources to monitor changes in elevation caused by groundwater
overdraft.
Flowing into the heart of the Mojave Desert, the Mojave River
exists mostly underground. Surface channels are usually dry
absent occasional groundwater surfacing and flooding
from extreme weather events like El Niño.
Alluvium generally refers to the clay, silt, sand and gravel that
are deposited by a stream, creek or other water body.
Alluvium is found around deltas and rivers, frequently
making soils very fertile. Alternatively, “colluvium” refers to
the accumulation at the base of hills, brought there from runoff
(as opposed to a water body). The Oxnard Plain in Ventura
County is a visible alluvial plain, where floodplains have
drifted over time due to gradual deposits of alluvium, a feature
also present in Red Rock Canyon State Park in Kern County.
A new era of groundwater management
began in 2014 with the passage of the Sustainable Groundwater
Management Act (SGMA), which aims for local and regional agencies
to develop and implement sustainable groundwater management
plans with the state as the backstop.
SGMA defines “sustainable groundwater management” as the
“management and use of groundwater in a manner that can be
maintained during the planning and implementation horizon without
causing undesirable results.”
This issue looks at remote sensing applications and how satellite
information enables analysts to get a better understanding of
snowpack, how much water a plant actually uses, groundwater
levels, levee stability and more.
This handbook provides crucial
background information on the Sustainable Groundwater Management
Act, signed into law in 2014 by Gov. Jerry Brown. The handbook
also includes a section on options for new governance.
This 2-day, 1-night tour traveled through Inland
Southern California to learn about the region’s efforts in
groundwater management, recycled water and other drought-proofing
measures.
This 2-day, 1-night tour traveled from the
Sacramento region to Napa Valley to view sites that explore
groundwater issues. Topics included groundwater quality,
overdraft and subsidence, agricultural use, wells, and regional
management efforts.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater is an in-depth,
easy-to-understand publication that provides background and
perspective on groundwater. The guide explains what groundwater
is – not an underground network of rivers and lakes! – and the
history of its use in California.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Rights Law, recognized as
the most thorough explanation of California water rights law
available to non-lawyers, traces the authority for water flowing
in a stream or reservoir, from a faucet or into an irrigation
ditch through the complex web of California water rights.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at California
groundwater and whether its sustainability can be assured by
local, regional and state management. For more background
information on groundwater please refer to the Foundation’s
Layperson’s Guide to Groundwater.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater management and the extent to which stakeholders
believe more efforts are needed to preserve and restore the
resource.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at hydraulic
fracturing, or “fracking,” in California. Much of the information
in the article was presented at a conference hosted by the
Groundwater Resources Association of California.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
groundwater banking, a water management strategy with appreciable
benefits but not without challenges and controversy.
This printed issue of Western Water features a
roundtable discussion with Anthony Saracino, a water resources
consultant; Martha Davis, executive manager of policy development
with the Inland Empire Utilities Agency and senior policy advisor
to the Delta Stewardship Council; Stuart Leavenworth, editorial
page editor of The Sacramento Bee and Ellen Hanak, co-director of
research and senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of
California.
This printed issue of Western Water looks at some of
the pieces of the 2009 water legislation, including the Delta
Stewardship Council, the new requirements for groundwater
monitoring and the proposed water bond.
This printed issue of Western Water examines
desalination – an issue that is marked by great optimism and
controversy – and the expected role it might play as an
alternative water supply strategy.
This printed issue of Western Water examines the Russian and
Santa Ana rivers – areas with ongoing issues not dissimilar to
the rest of the state – managing supplies within a lingering
drought, improving water quality and revitalizing and restoring
the vestiges of the native past.
This printed copy of Western Water examines California’s drought
– its impact on water users in the urban and agricultural sector
and the steps being taken to prepare for another dry year should
it arrive.
Statewide, groundwater provides about 30 percent of California’s
water supply, with some regions more dependent on it than others.
In drier years, groundwater provides a higher percentage of the
water supply. Groundwater is less known than surface water but no
less important. Its potential for helping to meet the state’s
growing water demand has spurred greater attention toward gaining
a better understanding of its overall value. This issue of
Western Water examines groundwater storage and its increasing
importance in California’s future water policy.
This issue of Western Water examines the issue of California
groundwater management, in light of recent attention focused on
the subject through legislative actions and the release of the
draft Bulletin 118. In addition to providing an overview of
groundwater and management options, it offers a glimpse of what
the future may hold and some background information on
groundwater hydrology and law.
This 25-minute documentary-style DVD, developed in partnership
with the California Department of Water Resources, provides an
excellent overview of climate change and how it is already
affecting California. The DVD also explains what scientists
anticipate in the future related to sea level rise and
precipitation/runoff changes and explores the efforts that are
underway to plan and adapt to climate.
20-minute DVD that explains the problem with polluted stormwater,
and steps that can be taken to help prevent such pollution and
turn what is often viewed as a “nuisance” into a water resource
through various activities.
Many Californians don’t realize that when they turn on the
faucet, the water that flows out could come from a source close
to home or one hundreds of miles away. Most people take their
water for granted; not thinking about the elaborate systems and
testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state. Where drinking water comes from,
how it’s treated, and what people can do to protect its quality
are highlighted in this 2007 PBS documentary narrated by actress
Wendie Malick.
A 30-minute version of the 2007 PBS documentary Drinking Water:
Quenching the Public Thirst. This DVD is ideal for showing at
community forums and speaking engagements to help the public
understand the complex issues surrounding the elaborate systems
and testing that go into delivering clean, plentiful water to
households throughout the state.
Water truly has shaped California into the great state it is
today. And if it is water that made California great, it’s the
fight over – and with – water that also makes it so critically
important. In efforts to remap California’s circulatory system,
there have been some critical events that had a profound impact
on California’s water history. These turning points not only
forced a re-evaluation of water, but continue to impact the lives
of every Californian. This 2005 PBS documentary offers a
historical and current look at the major water issues that shaped
the state we know today. Includes a 12-page viewer’s guide with
background information, historic timeline and a teacher’s lesson.
This 7-minute DVD is designed to teach children in grades 5-12
about where storm water goes – and why it is so important to
clean up trash, use pesticides and fertilizers wisely, and
prevent other chemicals from going down the storm drain. The
video’s teenage actors explain the water cycle and the difference
between sewer drains and storm drains, how storm drain water is
not treated prior to running into a river or other waterway. The
teens also offer a list of BMPs – best management practices that
homeowners can do to prevent storm water pollution.
Fashioned after the popular California Water Map, this 24×36-inch
poster was extensively re-designed in 2017 to better illustrate
the value and use of groundwater in California, the main types of
aquifers, and the connection between groundwater and surface
water.
Water as a renewable resource is depicted in this 18×24 inch
poster. Water is renewed again and again by the natural
hydrologic cycle where water evaporates, transpires from plants,
rises to form clouds, and returns to the earth as precipitation.
Excellent for elementary school classroom use.
As the state’s population continues to grow and traditional water
supplies grow tighter, there is increased interest in reusing
treated wastewater for a variety of activities, including
irrigation of crops, parks and golf courses, groundwater recharge
and industrial uses.
The 20-page Layperson’s Guide to Water Marketing provides
background information on water rights, types of transfers and
critical policy issues surrounding this topic. First published in
1996, the 2005 version offers expanded information on
groundwater banking and conjunctive use, Colorado River
transfers and the role of private companies in California’s
developing water market.
Order in bulk (25 or more copies of the same guide) for a reduced
fee. Contact the Foundation, 916-444-6240, for details.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to the State Water Project provides
an overview of the California-funded and constructed State Water
Project.
The State Water Project is best known for the 444-mile-long
aqueduct that provides water from the Delta to San Joaquin Valley
agriculture and southern California cities. The guide contains
information about the project’s history and facilities.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to Integrated Regional Water
Management (IRWM) is an in-depth, easy-to-understand publication
that provides background information on the principles of IRWM,
its funding history and how it differs from the traditional water
management approach.
The 24-page Layperson’s Guide to California Water provides an
excellent overview of the history of water development and use in
California. It includes sections on flood management; the state,
federal and Colorado River delivery systems; Delta issues; water
rights; environmental issues; water quality; and options for
stretching the water supply such as water marketing and
conjunctive use. New in this 10th edition of the guide is a
section on the human need for water.
The 28-page Layperson’s Guide to Nevada Water provides an
overview of the history of water development and use in Nevada.
It includes sections on Nevada’s water rights laws, the history
of the Truckee and Carson rivers, water supplies for the Las
Vegas area, groundwater, water quality, environmental issues and
today’s water supply challenges.
Seawater intrusion can harm groundwater quality in a variety of
places, both coastal and inland, throughout California.
Along the coast, seawater intrusion into aquifers is connected to overdrafting of
groundwater. Additionally, in the interior, groundwater
pumping can draw up salty water from ancient seawater isolated in
subsurface sediments.
Overdraft occurs when, over a period of years, more water is
pumped from a groundwater basin than is replaced from all sources
– such as rainfall, irrigation water, streams fed by mountain
runoff and intentional recharge. [See also Hydrologic Cycle.]
While many of its individual aquifers are not overdrafted,
California as a whole uses more groundwater than is replaced.
The treatment of groundwater— the primary source of drinking
water and irrigation water in many parts of the United States —
varies from community to community, and even from well to well
within a city depending on what contaminants the water contains.
In California, one-half of the state’s population drinks water
drawn from underground sources [the remainder is provided by
surface water].
Groundwater management is recognized
as critical to supporting the long-term viability of California’s
aquifers and protecting the
nearby surface waters that are connected to groundwater.
California has considered, but not implemented, a comprehensive
groundwater strategy many
times over the last century.
One hundred years ago, the California Conservation Commission
considered adding groundwater regulation into the Water
Commission Act of 1913. After hearings were held, it was
decided to leave groundwater rights out of the Water Code.
California, like most arid Western states, has a complex system
of surface water rights
that accounts for nearly all of the water in rivers and streams.
Groundwater banking is a process of diverting floodwaters or
other surface water into
an aquifer where it can be
stored until it is needed later. In a twist of fate, the space
made available by emptying some aquifers opened the door for the
banking activities used so extensively today.
When multiple parties withdraw water from the same aquifer,
groundwater pumpers can ask the court to adjudicate, or hear
arguments for and against, to better define the rights that
various entities have to use groundwater resources. This is known
as groundwater adjudication. [See also California
water rights and Groundwater Law.]
If California were flat, its groundwater would be enough to flood
the entire state 8 feet deep. The enormous cache of underground
water helped the state become the nation’s top agricultural
producer. Groundwater also provides a critical hedge against
drought to sustain California’s overall water supply.
In years of average precipitation, about 40 percent of the
state’s water supply comes from underground. During a drought,
the amount can approach 60 percent.
For something so largely hidden from view, groundwater is an
important and controversial part of California’s water supply
picture. How it should be managed and whether it becomes part of
overarching state regulation is a topic of strong debate.
In early June, environmentalists and Delta water agencies sued
the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) and the Kern
County Water Agency (KCWA) over the validity of the transfer of
the Kern Water Bank, a huge underground reservoir that supplies
water to farms and cities locally and outside the area. The suit,
which culminates a decade-long controversy involving multiple
issues of state and local jurisdictional authority, has put the
spotlight on groundwater banking – an important but controversial
water management practice in many areas of California.
Groundwater, out of sight and out of mind to most people, is
taking on an increased role in California’s water future.
Often overlooked and misunderstood, groundwater’s profile is
being elevated as various scenarios combine to cloud the water
supply outlook. A dry 2006-2007 water year (downtown Los Angeles
received a record low amount of rain), crisis conditions in the
Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the mounting evidence of climate
change have invigorated efforts to further utilize aquifers as a
reliable source of water supply.
When you drink the water, remember the spring. – Chinese proverb
Water is everywhere. Viewed from outer space, the Earth radiates
a blue glow from the oceans that dominate its surface. Atop the
sea and land, huge clouds of water vapor swirl around the globe,
propelling the weather system that sustains life. Along the way,
water, which an ancient sage called “the noblest of elements,”
transforms from vapor to liquid and to solid form as it falls
from the atmosphere to the surface, trickles below ground and
ultimately returns skyward.
Traditionally treated as two separate resources, surface water
and groundwater are increasingly linked in California as water
leaders search for a way to close the gap between water demand
and water supply. Although some water districts have coordinated
use of surface water and groundwater for years, conjunctive use
has become the catchphrase when it comes to developing additional
water supply for the 21st century.
